THE ARTS IN NEW YORK CITY Fall 2017 | Baruch College | Macaulay Honors

The New York Historical Society was such an eye opening experience. The photographs that were displayed to the class were great visualizations of how New York City has evolved over time and the kind of drastic changes that were made to make room for the industrialization of the city as a whole. My favorite photographs through out what was presented was the picture of the houses in 1901 that were taken down due to the construction for the building of the Williamsburg bridge. This opened my eyes to the idea that the 1900s pre and post Great Depression was a time of industrialization and many people were left without homes due to the construction of corporate buildings, and artifacts like bridges. Throughout the entire presentation at the library, this was something that struct out to me the most. Industrialization was a time of enrichment and development but people never really focused on how poorly citizens were affected by these kinds of developments.

This visit to the New York Historical Society was much different from one of our first trips together as a class to the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum. The comparison of these two visits side by side really show you how drastically New York City has changed from 1850 to 2016. Materialistic interior design never used to be a thing. The Historical Society showed that homes, cute cozy cafes, and places people used to spend everyday in, were torn down for things like the building of the Williamsburg bridge. The bridge would never have had to been built if industrialization was not booming and things like cars weren’t being introduced. I’m not saying industrialization was a bad thing, because it has definitely led to life changing advancements made by people t

hat have made our current lives in New York City much different from what they could have potentially been. Now, New York City is filled with sky scrapers and common tourist attractions like Times Square and all the iconic buildings such as the World Trade Center, Empire State Building, and Chrysler building. To build all of those current attractions, many things had to be torn down. It used to be quaint little areas all over New York City. Now, places like Stone Street and Williamsburg are trying so hard to make buldings that were “aesthetically pleasing” and “quaint” how they were in the early nineteenth century. The Cooper Hewiitt Museum showshow interior design and exterior architecture have made a compelte turn around. Instead of small buildings with fire escapes, there are hugely intric

ate buildings that all make up streets such as Museum Mile. Advances in architecture made all these buildings possible and each one of these museums gets hundreds of thousands of visitors a day, but no one really had thought about what had to be torn down to fit what is built now.

Economic wise, the country is in millions of dollars of debt. With demographic and social advancement, the debt would still be there but advances in the corporate world help the country dig deeper holes of debt but also have a greater chance of some day slowly coming out of those holes. The New York Historical Society really brightened up my vision on how drastically the common New York City streets have changed and the causes for those changes.

            On a busy Tuesday morning, I was assigned to visit the New York Historical Society Library with my fellow peers. There I was introduced to a world of New York and the other boroughs I have yet to see. The adaptation and the progression of how it has changed but more interestingly, how it was supposed* to change. In the library, we were introduced to a book, “Never Built New York,” which caught my eye from the second the instructor mentioned it. To think, there are models and thousands of replicas of buildings that were never built, but supposed to be. Supposed to be. This draws the question of how not only New York, but New York and its surroundings were made or created and how they’ve adapted from the early years to this present day.

With the assignment at hand I used the source that caught my eye at first, the Spotify playlist, but more particular, “New York State of Mind” by Nas written in 94’. In this song Nas shows us the way the “New York” state of mind was based. The violence of guns and shootings followed robberies and people screaming depicts a very rough part of his past that he expresses in his music. Along with the violence of guns is the positive mindset he brings to the table such as, investments and hoping the “cash came correct” meaning, he wants to be rich someday but a place like New York wasn’t where to start, at least not that part of New York. Nas is what I like to call, the “typical gangster.” Young, violent but curious and full of courage. Although the “hood” isn’t the best place the start, it wasn’t a reason to say no and not follow your dreams by letting such minor blocks ruin your chance to success. The way he expresses the city shows it as almost like a hill with a king on top. You have to beat everything in your way and overcome every possible task to get to the top. After beating out the violence, bad influences and horrible mentions, you can finally arise to the top. These acts show how some parts of the city aren’t just businessmen and money. That New York isn’t just full of hope and the second you walk in you’re rich beyond your wildest dreams. We too, have bad areas, bad influences and bad reputations. We have good kids and bad kids, nice businessmen and scammers, bosses and assholes, but most importantly we have culture. Without these key factors, we wouldn’t have what New York is today. A pool of mixed social hierarchy, people, occupations and culture. Whether you wear a suit around your shoulders or hold a strap under your belt, you are part of New York and to this day, that image hasn’t changed. We still have the areas where Nas can walk comfortably knowing the area but others walk with their heads in the dirt, too afraid to see what’s around.

To conclude, New York is still New York from 1960 as it was in 1980 and how it was in 2000 and now. New York is New York, we aren’t perfect and we definitely aren’t the best choice out there, but we are special in our own way for the way we carry our uniqueness and still stay true to ourselves. Nas knows it, I know it and before you know it, you’ll know it.

-Kevin Hasa